The 2023 annual report of the Court of Auditors shed harsh light on the weakness of hydrocarbon exploration operations in Morocco, which remain “ below the world average “. The document particularly highlights the lack of change in the density of exploratory drilling since the launch of the national energy strategy, which nevertheless provided for the development of the natural gas sector.
According to data collected by the Court of Auditors from the Ministry of Energy, the density of wells built in Morocco stands at only 4 wells per 10,000 square kilometers, a figure far from the world average which reaches 1,000 wells for the same surface area. This density also remains lower than that of neighboring countries such as Mauritania and Senegal, where offshore exploration has seen notable development.
Thus, the report of the Court of Auditors highlights the lack of tangible progress in the area since the adoption of this strategy, with a total of only 374 wells drilled at the end of 2023. Among these, 84 wells were carried out between 2009 and 2023, while the surface area of sedimentary basins open to exploration extends over approximately 761,000 square kilometers.
On the investment side, the Jurisdiction indicates that the financial effort deployed in hydrocarbon exploration reached 23.9 billion dirhams between 2009 and 2022, or an annual average of 1.78 billion dirhams. However, these investments experienced a decline from 2014, a situation attributed to the absence of major commercial discoveries and the global context marked by a transition to renewable energies.
Despite these difficulties, the report notes that exploration efforts have resulted in relatively small but encouraging natural gas discoveries. Among the notable results are the discoveries in the Tendrara region in 2016 and in the Tangier-Larache maritime zone in 2021. The potential resources of the two sites are estimated at 10 billion cubic meters for the first and 18 billion cubic meters for the second.
However, putting these projects into operation will require considerable investments, estimated at 5.7 billion dirhams for Tendrara and 9 billion for Tangier-Larache. Once in production, these projects could increase Morocco’s natural gas production capacities from 100 million to 900 million cubic meters per year, thereby helping to reduce the country’s energy dependence.
In conclusion, the Court of Auditors denounces the slowness in the realization of initiatives aimed at developing the natural gas sector, a situation which penalizes efforts aimed at gradually abandoning coal, still dominant in the national energy mix. This transition is, however, a central objective of the national energy strategy for 2030.
Finally, the CdC’s 2023 annual report highlights that, although several initiatives have been launched since 2011 to develop natural gas, these have never been formalized within the framework of a clear and structured national strategy. In a context where Morocco’s climate commitments require a gradual reduction in dependence on coal, the use of natural gas therefore appears to be an inevitable necessity rather than a simple strategic choice.
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